Soul Eater BAM
by eli-hawthorn
Summary: Disney characters as meisters and weapon partnerships. Shibusen is also opening a stream (BAM) for witches not bound to destruction and magically blessed/cursed humans.
1. Anna and Jack: first meeting

There are 444 steps on the stairs to Shibusen, and Anna took them at a run.

It's not like she'd brought much with her. Her clothes had been shipped ahead, and she had a backpack of emergency clothes, a few books, and a favourite toy. That was all she needed, everything else was essentials she could buy there.

Running through the halls and up and down the stairs of the palace was apparently good training for Shibusen. Anna let that thought carry her up, eager to see the city.

Her foot came over the top step, and she sighed happily. Then she turned around, and forgot to breathe when she saw the view. Death City lay before her, rooftops and spires looking like a tapestry.

This was going to be a good place. She could feel it. She spun around to face Shibusen.

"New student?"

A tall man with a rather gaunt face and toned muscles was watching her.

"Yes! I'm Anna." She said, then mentally smacked herself. English. Not Arendish. "Yes, I'm Anna. A new meister." she said, hoping it had come out right.

It couldn't have been that bad, because the man smiled. "Right this way."

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. New classrooms- new people- new textbooks- dining hall that seemed decent- English with accents from around the world.

There were students everywhere in different versions of the school uniform. Anna wasn't wearing hers yet, but neither were any of the other newbies. The meet and greet session was hectic, but then again she had been trying to talk to everyone in the room. There were at least a few people around her age who seemed nice.

The school was huge, with a labyrinthine layout. The themes of death and the macabre were everywhere, and Anna suspected the dark colour scheme and decor could get irritating after a while.

It was almost a relief to arrive at the girls dorm, be shown her room, and start unpacking. Her things were familiar. The room itself was nice- a two person bedroom, with two beds, two shelves, two desks and chairs, etc.

She opened the curtains and looked around at the view, deeply satisfied. Terra cotta rooftops and a few scraggly trees looked back at her. She put a palm against the window. Hot.

"Are you my roommate?"

Anna jumped and turned to see a fair girl with a bush of red hair at the door.

"Um. No idea. I'm Anna. And you are...?"

"Merida. Well, I've been into a few other rooms and it seems like most people have paired off, so do you want to be roommates?"

"I'd love to." Anna scrambled over to help Merida with her bags.

"What's this one?" she asked, hefting an oddly shaped bag in one hand and a gym bag in the other.

"Archery equipment."

"AWESOME." said Anna, almost dropping the bags in her excitement. Then she remembered that this was Shibusen, and almost every student would have exceptional physical skills.

"Thanks." replied Merida, hefting a suitcase through the door. "I'm going to be a meister. And you?"

"Meister as well. I don't have a weapon though."

Merida laughed a bit. "Well, most students don't until they've found their partner."

"Right, right, you're so right." said Anna, depositing the archery supplies on one of the beds. "Uh, do you want this bed?"

"Sure. So, where are you from Anna?"

"Arendelle. The capital city. And you?"

"Scotland. The highlands. Boring, but beautiful." Merida kicked the suitcase into position. "So, did you want to go find something to eat? Or something fun to do?"

"That sounds excellent. Did you have anywhere in mind?"

"Well, we could check out the dining hall."

So they went to the dining hall and chatted over salad and pasta. Merida had 3 brothers ("triplets, and every one of them is out to drive mum mad"), had been doing archery since she was 5 ("Dad gave me my first bow. Mum wasn't happy, but I never stopped."), and had wanted to go to Shibusen for years.

They talked, and kept talking as they walked from the dining hall to the common hall. The common hall was much smaller than either dormitory, but wasn't gender specific. Neither Anna nor Merida really knew what one did in a common hall, but as it turned out, there were game tables, couches, a television and a game station.

There were quite a few students in the common hall, most of them lower year students.

"Upper years usually live off campus." explained Aster, a tall, slightly buck-toothed Australian boy.

"Are you an upper year?"

"No, first year. But I've been asking around." said Aster. He was the one that had found a deck of cards and asked if anyone wanted to play. A group of eight of them were playing gin rummy, after a heated game of cheat had almost ended in a fight.

The time ticked on, and eventually the group dwindled to three- Merida, Anna and a boy named Jack.

"I think I'm going to go to bed now. See you in a bit, eh Anna?"

"Goodnight, see you later."

And then it was just Jack and Anna. They looked at each other.

"Another game?"

"Yes!"

Jack started dealing the cards, giving Anna a chance to look at him. He was pretty, this American boy, paler than anyone she'd ever met, with almost white hair. He dressed in blue, and somehow it looked good on him.

"What?"

Anna realized that she was now looking at his eyes, not his hair. Part of her brain was busy noting that his eyes were pale blue, which was perhaps why the other part struggled in getting out. "Uh- nothing. So, what game will we play?"

Jack shrugged. "Go fish? It's easy, and fast. We probably don't want to be here too much longer."

The words made it suddenly, glaringly obvious that they were the only two left in the common hall. They began to play, but something felt off. Anna let a few rounds go by, to be sure, before commenting.

"This feels different."

"Well, it's just the two of us." said Jack, shrugging.

"So why are we still here?"

Jack looked up from his cards, one eyebrow raised.

"Ah, sorry that- it's not exactly what-" She made an irritated growl. "I can't English when I'm tired." she snapped out in Arendish, hoping that would make her point.

It seemed to. "Oh." said Jack. He waited while she found her words.

"Why are we here after everyone else has left?" Anna said finally, with exaggerated attention to enunciation.

"Because it's fun? I don't know. Do you always question games this much?"

"I was just wondering! Everyone else was having fun too, but now we're here, playing alone, and it's still fun, it's just- different."

Jack grinned. "As long as it's fun."

Anna grinned back, and lifted her cards. "So then, Jack, why did you decide to come to Shibusen?"

He shrugged. "I'm a weapon, I had to. But you're a meister, right? How'd you end up here?"

Anna stared at her cards. "Ohhhh, well, I wasn't really wanted at home- I mean, I was but it's so boring there. My sister hardly ever does anything, just stays in her room all the time, and my parents encourage it and never have company. So I never got out much, and when I went to boarding school it didn't go too well, so they sent me here."

"What went wrong with boarding school?"

Dangit, THAT'S what he'd pulled from that? "Nooo, don't make me tell, it's embarassing."

Jack pulled his knees up to his chest, cards forgotten. "Come on, tell. I'll tell you about my school after."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay. Well, I wasn't happy being tutored at the cas- at home, so my parents decided that boarding school would be best. I didn't want to go because it seemed too far away and it was an English boarding school. They made me, so I spent the first week or so pretending I didn't speak English."

Jack laughed. "And did they figure it out?"

"Oh, yeah, once the teachers saw me talking with some of the other girls, that was over. It was fun- I liked being with people, and the staff were pretty nice. I was good in classes, and at the sports. But then- well- there was this girl, not a very nice girl, and I ended up punching her in the face. During a food fight. That I may have started."

Jack laughed again. "Oh man, I wish I could have seen that."

"Stop laughing, it was very serious." said Anna, but she was laughing too. Once they'd calmed down a bit, she asked "So what was your school like?"

"Oh... not nearly as much fun as yours. I was mostly ignored. My family are weapons, and people don't-" He looked at his knees. "I'm from a small town in the mountains. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows to stay away from the Frost family. So the other kids pretended not to notice me, mostly."

Anna realized she was was reaching toward him, and pulled her hand back. "That's terrible." she said instead.

"It wasn't fun." Jack still looked serious, then lifted his head and straightened. "So. Shall we finish the game?"

"Let's do it."

After the game, Anna looked at the clock, and thought for the first time how she would feel going to class on only a few hours sleep. They put away the cards, and Jack walked Anna to her dorm as they chatted about nothing in particular.

They said goodnight, and as Anna crept up the stairs as quietly as she could, she was very sure that she would see Jack again soon.


	2. Anna and Jack: soul resonance

They teach you the theory of soul resonance before you ever try it. Every soul, you learn, has a resonance, like light or sound, and this resonance can be altered slightly. Meister-weapon partners can adjust their souls' resonance to complementary wavelengths. The meister's wavelength is amplified by the weapon's, and the resonance goes back and forth, giving the duo greater power than either could achieve alone.

"First, think about your partner. Who are they? What makes them unique?"

Anna holds the staff that is Jack the way she's been taught, grip firm and stance ready. Jack's weapon form is wood, almost a branch really. The colour suggests that if it were a branch, it was one cut in the middle of winter. Practice staffs warms under her hands, but Jack's weapon form is always cool to the touch. Even if she had never seen the staff before, she would know it was a human weapon- somehow you never can mistake human weapons for inert ones. You can feel that they have a will of their own. Jack is himself in either form, with all his mischief, charm and hints of sadness.

"Next, find the resonance of your own soul. Match it to your partner's."

This part is trickier, because how can you know the resonance of a soul? Some students have a gift for it, but Anna isn't one of them. She finds that it helps to dance- only a few steps to find the rhythm that moves her. Once she has it, she focuses on Jack's, which is easier. He's right there, under her hands, reaching out just as she is.

"Let the resonance go."

Anna never understood that advice until she felt it. She tried to explain it to her parents, and it came out almost right: "You know how some people look at each other, and you can see that they're having a conversation without words? It's like that, except you can feel it too."

It's that, but it's more. It's knowing the best in your partner and bringing it out a hundredfold. It's power spinning between the both of you like lightning, and you don't need to think or coordinate, because both of you are so focused on the same thing that it's become a single, seamless purpose.

It's after her first soul resonance that Anna knows in her soul, not just her mind, that she wants to be a meister.


	3. Merida and Aster: partners?

Merida loved the bazaar in Death City. Everyone had the oddest things, and they were all together in one place. What more could you want?

Today, though, she had a mission: shoes. She hadn't realized just how tough the rigorous physical training at Shibusen would be on footwear. She browsed through the stalls, trying to focus on finding some nice running shoes, but getting easily distracted by likely looking shiny things, shirts, and other things she really didn't need.

A screech one stall over caught her attention. She turned in time to see someone running off and the stall owner yelling 'Stop, thief' after them, obviously itching to follow but unable to leave the rest of his wares.

Merida took off after the thief before she'd even finished processing the situation. They were fast, but apparently all that running in physical training class had done her some good. She charged along the cobbles, arms pumping, relishing the adrenaline as she closed the distance.

A brown arm came into view. She turned her head slightly and Aster looked down at her, long legs easily keeping pace with hers.

"Hey." he said. "Going after them?"

"Yeah, I've got this one, thanks."

"Thought you were an archer."

Merida took a corner sharply. "Yes."

"Where's your bow then?"

Merida concentrated on moving her feet faster, ignoring Aster. Of course her bow and quiver were in her room. She had a dagger on her, but her bow and arrow were too much of a handful to carry around on errands.

"We're not catching up to him anymore." Aster observed. "Got anything you could throw?"

"A dagger."

He made an unimpressed snort. "Could you throw it?"

Merida judged the distance and her skill. "Not easily."

"Use me then."

Merida turned her head toward him. "What?"

"I'm a boomerang."

"I know that, what I don't know is how to use a boomerang."

"You can aim, and you can throw." Aster's form blurred, and Merida reflexively caught the curved piece of wood that fell into her hand.

"What the hell, Aster."

"Just throw already."

Merdia stopped running, grounded herself, and took aim. The boomerang felt awkard and unfamiliar in her hand. "You'd better come back." she whispered, and threw.

The boomerang soared through the air, but Merida hadn't accounted for the curved trajectory. The boomerang careened into a wall, chipping small chunks from the brick before it clattered to the cobbles.

The thief turned a corner, and Merida started running again, cursing herself for not doing that in the first place.

Aster appeared back in her hand, startling Merida into halting for a moment.

"How-"

"I'm a boomerang, I came back, now GET AFTER HIM AND THROW AGAIN."

Merida raced around the corner, and threw almost as soon as she sighted the thief. This time, her aim was better, and Aster hit their back. Not the knees she'd been going for, but good enough to make them stumble.

Merida caught up in seconds, and drew her dagger just in case. The thief had been about to rise, but looked warily at her dagger. "Give me the money you stole."

The thief grinned. "You're one of those do-gooder Shibusen students, aren't you?"

"Give back the money you stole."

"No."

Aster transformed but left one hand curved to a wooden point that he pressed against the thief's neck. "Then we'll take it from you."

"So you'll steal from me, just like I stole from the merchant."

"If that's how you look at it, yeah." said Merida, picking up bills from where they'd fallen out of the thief's bag. She straightened and looked to Aster, who jerked his head slightly back the way they'd come. She started down the alleyway. Aster waited, eyes never leaving the thief, until he judged that Merida's footsteps sounded far enough away that the thief couldn't catch up. Then he transformed.

Merida was less surprised by the boomerang suddenly appearing in her hand this time.

"How do you do that?" she asked, once Aster was human formed again.

"What?"

"I mean, can you always do the teleportation thing, or is it just when you're a weapon?"

"Oh. That." Aster scratched his cheek. "It's just when I'm in weapon form. Though there's a few people who swear it's all the time."

"Oh? Who?"

"No one really, just a few people I spar with." Aster almost seemed embarrassed, which somehow made it funnier.

"You probably even aren't that good. I mean, for a weapon maybe, but I'd like to see you sparring with the meisters." Merida said, deliberately nonchalant.

"That a challenge?" Aster said, the glint in his eyes belying his mild tone. Merida smiled innocently.

"Anytime you like, bunny."

He took a swipe at her head, but she had been expecting it and dodged.

"See? Can't even land a hit, why should I worry?" she teased.

"Hmph." He looked annoyed but let his expression fade to neutral as they came out of the alley and into the busy marketplace.

They returned the money to the shopkeeper, who was overjoyed. It turned out he was a baker, and inclined to be generous. "Here are some of my best rolls, fresh out of the oven not an hour ago. Two for each of you, on the house."

Aster and Merida thanked him. Merida was turning to go when she turned back and asked the merchant "D'you know where I can get some good shoes here?"

The merchant tapped his chin for a moment. "As it happens, I might. A friend of a friend of mine has a shoe store about a block from here." He gave her directions, and Merida thanked him again and turned to leave.

"Shoes?" Aster asked, seeming to find it funny for some reason.

"Mine wore out." Merida said curtly. "Well, see you later then." She was starting off, but Aster grabbed her wrist. Gently, but she still glared.

"Maybe we can meet up again sometime and I can show you how to throw a boomerang properly."

It wasn't a question, but it was, and Merida wasn't sure why the answer was suddenly so obvious to her. Maybe it was something in Aster's voice- something that told her he really did want to get to know her better. To form a partnership.

"Sounds good. I'll be back on campus within an hour, want to meet up in the common hall and plan?"

"Excellent, see you then." said Aster, and that quickly they went their separate ways.


	4. Merida and Aster: a conversation

Merida appears at his door, unannounced and obviously in bad temper. Aster assesses the situation and says "You've been talking to your mother, haven't you?"

"Yes." And if it had gone well, she wouldn't be at his door.

"Want to spar?"

"Yes."

So they go to the gym, and gear up. Thanks to the practice they've been getting in, Aster is the best at sparring of any weapon in his class. He still can't beat Merida on a good day though.

She takes a swing at him, and as he dodges he can tell that this is not a good day.

"So?" he asks, bracing himself for the explosion.

"She- never listens. She- just- won't- hear what I'm saying." Merida growls, speech accented with every punch or kick. Aster blocks what he can, and the rest doesn't hurt too much.

"I've TOLD her I'm going to finish training at Shibusen. I've told her I want to be a meister, and join the EAT class if I can. And she-still-thinks- I'm- going- home to be the perfect-little-lady that she wants me to be."

She momentarily pauses for breath, and Aster takes advantage of this to use a trip-shove combination that neatly lands her on her rear.

He helps her up. "So why doesn't she want you to be a meister?"

The bout begins again. "Because 'ladies don't fight' and she 'hates to think what kind of manners I'm learning at a school like this'." Merida says. "And I've told her we have diplomacy classes, and study ethics and maths and literature too, but she just- it's like she wants to forget that and focus on the fact that someday I'll be killing criminals."

Merida's hits are more focused and powerful now, so he judges it safe to say. "When you put it like that, I can kind of see why your mum might have a problem with the idea."

She lands a particularly solid blow to his stomach. "And why would that be?"

He counters. "Being a meister is dangerous. And yeah, meisters do kill people- only the people from The List, but there've always been people who don't make that distinction. Maybe she doesn't want you to spend your life fighting, and maybe dying."

"That's ridiculous. I'd be fine. I AM fine." She aims a strike, which he blocks.

"Spoken like a young idiot." he says drily.

"Look, I'm not stupid, I know the risks, I've just- chosen to accept them. I chose a long time ago, and she can't see it."

"Have you explained it to her?"

This time it's a kick, and he barely dodges. "WHAT DO YOU THINK I SPENT THE LAST HOUR TRYING TO DO?"

"You were on the phone for an hour?"

Merida punches him in response.

"Crikey, no wonder you're so worked up about it."

"She's going to drive me mad."

"It's part of her plan. Drive you mad, then drag you home when the meisters won't have you."

Merida makes the gesture to call for a time out. They both take off their helmets, and go for the water bottles. Merida takes a swig from hers and leans against the wall.

"I just... ugh. Dad understands it so well, how come she can't?" she says.

Aster smacks her gently on the head. "Well, she cares enough to stay with you on the phone for an hour. That's somewhere to start."

Merida mutters darkly at her water bottle, then looks up at him. "Thanks for this."

"Anytime."

"We should probably go work on homework."

"Probably."

"Want to meet up in the common hall?"

"Was thinking the cafeteria might be better."

"The chairs aren't as comfortable though."

"Noo, but-" and the argument continues all the way back to the dorms.


End file.
